With the 2020 presidential election approaching, it’s crucial to ensure that voters are properly educated. Particularly with the United States in its state of turmoil, it is critical that citizens pledge their support to candidates for their political stances and vision for the future of the country, rather than for the representation they could offer.
When Hillary Clinton ran for President in the 2016 race, she received an abundance of support and endorsements from celebrities. Coincidentally or not, most of these endorsements were from women. Having been the only female candidate during the campaign and the first for a major political party, many women across the country felt connected to Clinton in some way. Feminists believed it was finally time for a woman to take a place in office and launched their unflinching support for her, regardless of her actual political viewpoints. According to a study published by the Pew Research Center, 45 percent of white women voted for Clinton, and 82 percent of women of color voted for her as well.
Supporting a candidate solely based on their race, gender, religion, or any other personal factor is entirely backwards, and just leads politics back around to full-fledged bias and inequality. Although the current government system is dominated by white males, they got there because of traditional values that favored their gender and race, as opposed to what they stood for. Using the same tactic by promoting everyone besides white males will only take it to the very opposite extreme. Supporting politicians for their political views, and their political views alone, is the only way to ensure complete fairness and the best chance for national success.
Continuing this type of biased support also encourages candidates to abuse their minority backgrounds. After finding out that being a minority will receive them votes from other minorities, they will begin to focus on that more than their political beliefs. For example, a candidate whose grandfather is half Mexican will attempt to use this to their advantage, even though they have never embraced that culture in their life before. They will begin to try to appeal to all minorities, but especially Mexicans, and promise them that they share the same beliefs and customs.
The practice of using a minority group’s oppression or lack of representation as a marketing strategy to help them advance, and only embracing that aspect when it is convenient to them, is extremely disrespectful. This only adds to the notion that campaign races are becoming more and more like reality TV shows and advertising ploys than they are about informing the public about one of the most important decisions they will make regarding the fate of the country.
In order to attempt to bring politics back to how they will shape our country, and less about what somebody will look like in office, it is extremely important that voters, or soon-to-be voters, stay educated on what a potential candidate wants to do, and don’t blindly place their faith in whoever seems like they could’ve been the most oppressed.
